Method for unloading and blending layered stacks of bricks or similar articles

ABSTRACT

Apparatus and method for mechanically unloading a layer or double layers of layered stacks of rows of bricks or similar articles stacked, for example, on kiln cars or pallets and for selectively and variably blending bricks from different rows and/or from different layers of the stack to provide a blended balance between different brick firing qualities and/or to achieve special coloring effects in the final blended output. Bricks from one layer of the stack are stored on one of a plurality of storage levels and one or two rows of bricks from each level are separated and mixed with other separated rows of bricks from the same or other storage levels to achieve the desired blending pattern. Special handling also permits the mixing of bricks from less than a whole row of bricks from one layer with less than a whole row of bricks from another layer for increased flexibility in achieving any desired blend.

United States Patent 1 1 momoa [72] Inventor Hans M. L. Lingl,Jr. FOREIGN PATENTS ParisiTenn- 118,293 2 1959 U.S.S.R. 214/164 21 Appl. No. 39,707

]22] Filed May 22, 1970 [45] Patented Sept. 7,1971

[7 3] Assignee Lingl-Bell Corporation Gleason, Tenn.

[54] METHOD FOR UNLOADING AND BLENDING LAYERED STACKS 0F BRICKS 0R SKMILAR ARTICLES 8 Claims, 7 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 214/152, 214/85 C,2l4/l6.4 [51] int. Cl B65g 59/02 {50] Field of Search 214/85 C, 8.5 R, 16.4, 8.5 SS, 152

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,487,959 1/1970 Pearne 214/85 C Primary Examiner-Gerald M. Forlenza Assistant Examiner-George F. Abraham Att0meyCushman, Darby & Cushman ABSTRACT: Apparatus and method for mechanically unloading a layer or double layers of layered stacks of rows of bricks or similar articles stacked, for example, on kiln cars or pallets and for selectively and variably blending bricks from different rows and/or from different layers of the stack to provide a blended balance between different brick firing qualities and/or to achieve special coloring effects in the final blended output. Bricks from one layer of the stack are stored on one of a plurality of storage levels and one or two rows of bricks from each level are separated and mixed with other separated rows of bricks from the same or other storage levels to achieve the desired blending pattern. Special handling also permits the mixing of bricks from less than a whole row of bricks from one layer with less than a whole row of bricks from another layer for increased flexibility in achieving any desired blend.

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PATENTED SEP 7 l9?! $HEET 1 OF 5 I N VE NTOR PATENTED SEP 7197! $HEET 0F 5 INVENTOR PATENTED SEP YIBYI BEQSMEES SHEET 3 OF 5 INVENTOR BEOQQMB PATENTED SEP FISH EZHEET U [1F 5 INV'ENTOR y ATTORNEYS METHOD'FQR 'UNLOADING ANDBLENDING LAYERED iSTACKSOFEBRICKS OR'SIMILAR ARTICLES Thiszinvention relates'to:anapparatusand method for automatically or mechanically unloading and blending layered stacks of bricks from pallets or .cars after firing in a kiln to produce a variable blending :pattern of consecutive rows or half-rows .of brieksfrom the various layers before feeding the blended brick output to stackers and final packaging equipment such as strapping machines or shrink-foil packaging machines.

Generally, the invention relates to :the handling and blend- .ingofbricks or any othersimilar uniformlydimensioned .articlesiafter firing or curing. An object of this invention is to-pro vide a method and apparatus having the capability of blending bricks in a highly flexible pattern from different layers and sections of layered stacks emerging from a kiln to either balancedifferences infiring quality (i.e. difference in color or shrinkage, etc.) caused by :nonuniform conditions during previous processing, or to achieve special color effects by blending bricks having different colors.

It is another object of this invention to provide novel apparatus and process techniques of superior capacity for unloadingand blending bricks or similar articles as stated above .at high production rates comparable to the production rates of automatic machinery in the upstreamside of the manufacturingprocesses under consideration.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide the described unloading and blending while avoiding any unnecessarychipping or other damage to thebricks caused by rough handling.

Automatic unloading machines without any blending capacity areknown in the prior art. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,487,959 (Pearne et al.) reveals an unloader for unloading double layers of rows of bricks 'in layered stacks emerging from a kiln. Initially upon exit from the kiln, the rows of bricks are spaced apart as required by the firing process in the kiln. This prior art unloader picks up double layers of rows by first pushing the rows together (by directly sliding the top double layer overan adjacent'perpendicularly oriented lower double layer) thus causing damage by chipping the edges of bricks during the sliding action. However, this prior art unloader relates strictly to the unloading of bricksand provides no blending capacity at all.

Since the grade or quality distribution of bricks on different kiln cars and even on different levels within the same kiln car is quite uneven, it is very advantageous to provide for the selective and variable blending of bricks from different layers and/or from different kiln cars to compensate for such uneven grade or quality distributions. For instance, experience has shown that two thirds of the bricks on any given kiln car may be of one quality while the remaining one-third divides into several other different qualities. The known prior systems do not permit balanced flexible or variable blending patterns for bricks having such variations in quality distributions from one car'or layer to the next.

Accordingly, it is another object of this invention to provide for increased blending flexibility to meet the variable grade distribution of bricks on various levelsof various kiln cars in any desired pattern without reducing thespeed or the capacity of the unloading and blending device whenever additional grades are blended.

Briefly, this invention involves method and apparatus for unloading, unfacing and closing up a spaced-apart double layer of bricks (if single layers are unloaded the unfacing and unloading operations may be combined) from a kiln car or pallet and subsequently storing the resulting unfaced laterally abutting rows of bricks from a layer upon one of a plurality of storage levels. From here, individual (double rows if two stackers are utilized) consecutive rows or less than whole rows (half rows) of bricks may be indexed out of the various storage levels and blended before deliveny to one or more final output stackingdevices forfinal-packaging.Storageon anyone of the elevator conveyor which, in the exemplary embodiment, has

two conveyor levels such that bricks may be simultaneously I transferred into and out of the elevator at the same or'different levels to increase the brick handling and blending capacity ofthe machine.

In addition, the blending of indexed rows from the various storage levels is achieved by conveying each of the indexed double or single rows onto a vertically adjustable blender elevator. In the illustrative embodiment, the blender elevator also comprises at least two conveyorelevatorlevels such that bricks may be transferred out of the blender elevator to the stacking device at one level simultaneously with bricks being delivered into the blender elevator at the same or another nonaligned storage level. In addition, the illustrative embodiment comprises a blender elevator having a length equal to approximately one and one-half rows of bricks with a special brickstopping device at the output side of each level of the conveyor for preventing the final one-half row of bricks from moving off the end of the elevator. In this manner, at least one-half row of bricks is always maintained on each level of the blender elevator such that a final one-half row of bricks from any storage level may be mixed with the first onehalf row from any other storage level thereby permitting blending of bricks from less than a whole row.

A more complete and detailed understanding of this inven' tion may be obtained by carefully studying the following detailed description in combination with the drawings of which:

FIG. ll represents a plan view of an exemplary embodiment of an apparatus for practicing this invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of double layers of spaced-apart bricks on a kiln car with the gripping device shown somewhat schematically;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of the device shown in FIG. 1 used for closing up a double layer of spacedapart bricks and the device used for unfacing such a closed-up double layer. (FIG. 4 is a view taken in the general direction of arrows fr-4l in FIG. 1);

FIG. 5 is an enlarged, fragmentary perspective view of the storage elevator and various storage and buffer conveyors shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged end elevation view of the device shown in FIG. 1 and looking in the direction from right toleft in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 7 is an enlarged and fragmentary elevational view of the brick-stopping apparatus shown in FIG. 6.

Referring to FIGS. ll, 2 and 6, the features of this invention will be generally described with more specific detail being given in reference to the remaining figures and FIG. 6.

Layered stacks of bricks or similar uniformly dimensioned articles are shown at moving in the direction of arrow l2 towards a gantry frame 14 upon which a gripping device 16 is permitted to travel for gripping layers of bricks from stacks 10 and transferring them to a receiving table 18. In the preferred embodiment, the handling capacity of this invention is such that additional parallel travelling cars from other kilns may also be unloaded by lengthening gantry frame 14 permitting gripper 16 to travel over these additional kiln cars, as will be evident.

Bricks in stacks 110 are commonly stacked in spaced-apart rows of double layers with the faces of the bricks abutting one another such that the bottom one of the double layer is facing upwardly while the top one is facing downwardly. In the preferred illustrative embodiment, the gripping device 16 grips such a spaced-apart double layer off the top of a stack 10 underneath gantry M and transfers the gripped double layer to receiving table MB. While the bricks are in the kiln, they are spaced apart to facilitate the firing process and the receiving table 18 includes means for closing up such spaced-apart bricks to form laterally abutting rows of double layers of bricks. Thereafter, the bricks are conveyed to an unfacing conveyor table 20 where the top closed-up layer is separated from the bottom closed-up layer and rotated through substantially l80 to the left (as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2) thus forming two groups of laterally abutting rows of bricks in a single layer, all facing upwardly. Of course, if desired a layer rather than'a double layer may be transferred off the stacks by gripper 16.

After such an unfacing operation at 20, bricks are then conveyed into a storage elevator section at 22 where, after any necessary vertical adjustment, the bricks may be conveyed into any one of the storage conveyor levels 24, 26 or 28. The storage levels also include buffer storage conveyor areas 30, 32 and 34 respectively corresponding to the main storage levels 24, 26 and 28, as best seen in FIG. 2. The bricks are indexed two rows at a time to feed two stackers (only one row is indexed if. only one stacker is utilized) onto the buffer conveyors 30, 32 and 34. After the separated indexed double rows of bricks at each of the storage/blender levels have been conveyed into blender feeding conveyor levels 36, 38 and 40, respectively, each consecutive double row of bricks is then individually and selectively conveyed onto a blender elevator conveyor at 42 (see FIGS. 1 and 6) which may be vertically adjusted to transfer the bricks in a final blended order to a final off-loading conveyor 44 for final delivery to stackers and packaging apparatus as at 46 and 48, as will be understood.

In the illustrative embodiment, blender elevator 42 has a length substantially equal to one and one-half the length of a single row of laterally abutting bricks such that the final onehalf of a preceding row of bricks may be maintained on the right-hand portion of conveyor 42 (see FIG. 6) while another whole row of bricks from the same or different storage levelis conveyed to fill up the space remaining at the left of this final half row. Subsequently, if this level of the blending elevator is aligned with loading conveyor 44 and the conveyor 42 is indexed to deliver a whole row of bricks, the blended output will comprise the final one-half of the preceding row plus the first one-half of the newly added row. Thus, the half row from the preceding row is effectively combined with the first half row of the subsequent row from the same or a different storage level thus permitting half rows of bricks from any storage level to be mixed with other half rows of bricks from the same or other storage levels in any desired blending pattern and before delivery by conveyor 44 to stacking and packaging apparatus 46 and 48.

In the illustrative embodiment, both the storage elevator 22 and the blending elevator 42 comprise at least two levels of conveyors so that bricks may be transferred both into and out of the elevator conveyor sections simultaneously at the same or different storage levels thus maintaining the capacity and production rate of the machine at a very high level while yet permitting a high degree of flexibility in selecting a desired blending pattern.

While no special control apparatus is herein disclosed for controlling this invention, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that normally automatic controls will be devised for controlling such an unloading and blending device or alternatively the operation of this device could be controlled from a control console by an operator for semiautomatic operation.

Referring now to FIG. 3, the gripping device 16 and the layered stacks of bricks are shown in more detail. As shown, the layered stacks comprise double layers such as 100 and 102 with the bricks in adjoining double layers being perpendicularly disposed with respect to one another. While the end faces of most of the bricks are already adjacent, the wider sides of the bricks are spaced apart such that in the illustration of FIG. 3 there are, for instance, six double rows of spacedapart bricks such as rows 104, 106, 108, 110, 112 and 114 with a space between the brick end faces of rows 108 and 110, as shown.

Gripper 16, which may be similar to the gripper assembly described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,270,897, is shown aligned and ready to descend and pick up double layer 100. As shown, it comprises a tongue 116 aligned with the space between rows 108 and 110 and two relatively movable side gripping portions 118 and 120 for engagement with the left and right-hand end faces of the double layer 100 respectively. The gripper 16 is mounted for two-dimensional translation and rotation as well as vertical movement to permit alignment of the operating gripper members with the alternately perpendicularly disposed double layers of bricks in stack 10, as will be appreciated. For instance, the rotational movement of the gripper is indicated by arrow 122.

When the gripper device 16 is properly aligned with a double layer such as layer 100, the layer is then gripped and transferred to a receiving table 18 shown in more detail at FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 4, the receiving table 18 comprises a conveyor with table extensions 152 and 154 located at either side thereof. The spaced-apart double layer of bricks is placed by the gripper on both the conveyor and the laterally extending table extensions 152 and 154 in substantially the same spaced-apart condition as existed in the original stack 10. Thereafter, pusher elements 156 and 158 push against the spaced-apart double layer of bricks from opposite directions transverse to the conveyor 150 thereby closing up the spaces between each of the bricks in rows 104, 106, 108, 110, 112 and 114 thus making these rows into laterally abutting rows of bricks. Other devices may also be used for closing up the spaced-apart bricks as will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

Double layers of laterally abutting rows 104, 106 and 108 are then indexed off conveyor 150 onto conveyor 160 which is associated with the unfacing apparatus 20 also shown in FIG. 4. After being conveyed to the far side of the unfacing conveyor 160, this double layer is stopped in position for a turnover apparatus 162 to grip the top layer of bricks and separate then from the bottom layer of bricks whilerotating them through substantially and depositing this top layer of bricks in a faceup condition at the opposite end (right-hand end in FIG. 4) of conveyor 160. As shown in FIG. 4, this top layer of brickshas just been deposited on the conveyor in a face up condition while the original position of the bricks is shown in dashed lines over the lower layer of bricks. (The turnover device used at this point may be substantially similar to that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,468,998.)

Thus, the unfacing device 20 produces a single layer of laterally abutting rows of bricks all faced upwardly. Of course, the next three rows 110, 112 and 114 will next be similarly advanced into the unfacing device 20 and converted into a single upwardly faced layer of laterally abutting rows of bricks, in a similar fashion. From conveyor 160, the laterally abutting rows of bricks from a layer such as layer 100 (in the illustration of FIG. 5 this would comprise four groups of 3 rows each of laterally abutting upwardly facing bricks) are conveyed onto a storage elevator conveyor 22 (shown in more detail in FIG. 5).

As shown in FIG. 5, the storage elevator 22 is vertically adjustable as, for instance, on vertically movable chains 200 and 202, trained around sprockets 201, 203. The purpose of elevator 22 is to transfer the laterally abutting rows of bricks from a layer (such as double layer 100) from the unfacing device 20 into one of the storage conveyor levels 24, 26 or 28. To speed up the handling process and thus improve the capacity and production of the machine, the storage elevator 22 is shown as comprising at least two storage elevator conveyors, such as 204 and 206 (see FIG. 5), which are spaced apart a distance equal to the spacing between the storage levels 24, 26 and 28, as shown. In this manner, bricks may be simultaneously transferred into and out of storage elevator 22 at desired levels. For instance, as shown in FIG. 5, bricks are being transferred into the storage elevator on conveyor 206 while bricks are simultaneously being transferred out of the storage elevator on con veyor 204 into storage conveyor 24. Of course, if bricks were to be transferred into level 26 only a single conveyor 206 would be needed. However, to fully accommodate the plurality of storage levels, it is preferred that at least tfwo storage elevator conveyors 204, 206 be utilized to permit simultaneous transfer out of the elevator at more than one level. The conveyor 206 is also shown in dotted lines in a lowered position in FIG. 5 for delivery of bricks into storage conveyor level 28. Conveyors 204, 206 are suitably drivingly connected to the chains 2110, 202, as will be appreciated, for adjustment of the vertical position thereof.

The overall storage capacity of the apparatus comprises primary storage conveyors 24, 26 and 28 as well as corresponding buffer storage conveyors 30, 32 and 34, as seen in FIG. 1. Thus, when one of the storage levels 24, 26 or 26 is exhausted of bricks, the bricks remaining in buffer areas 30, 32 and 34 may continue to be used in a blending operation (to be described later) while the depleted storage area 24, 26 or 28 is refilled through storage elevator 22, as will be evident.

In moving laterally abutting rows of bricks from storage levels 24, 26 and 28 into corresponding buffer conveyors 31), 32 and 34, each of the laterally abutting rows of bricks may be separated from neighboring rows of bricks by properly indexing and coordinating the operation of the buffer and storage conveyors involved in the transfer. In the illustrative embodiment, provisions are made for using two stacking machines (not shown, but intended to be positioned adjacent stations 46, 48 shown in FIG. 1) and thus the laterally abutting rows of bricks shown in FIG. 5 are not shown as separated into individual rows of bricks in the buffer area but rather are shown as separated into double rows of laterally abutting bricks. However, if only a single stacker is to be utilized for the final output of the machine, the laterally abutting rows could of course be separated into spaced, individual rows of bricks. The capacity of the machine is however increased by the use of two stackers and thus the illustrative embodiment is designed for use with two stacking machines as will be evident.

After passing through the buffer conveyors 30, 32 and 34, double abutting rows of bricks 208, 210 and 212 travel beyond the end of the respective buffer conveyors onto a plu rality of parallel and spaced horizontal rollers 214 arranged in each of the blender feeding levels 36, 38 and 40, as shown in FIG. 6. The axes of these rollers are disposed at right angles to the direction of movement of the buffer conveyors. The plurality of supporting rollers 214 which effectively provide extensions of the buffer conveyors 30, 32 and 34 are indicated at blender feeder level 38. It will be appreciated that the struc ture at each of the blender feeder levels 36, 38 and 40 will be the same. FIG. 6 shows feeder levels 36 and 33 in vertical sections, taken at different regions, to better illustrate the roller and conveyor structures at each level, as will be appreciated.

In between the rollers 214, at each level, a plurality of narrow belts 216 is arranged, as indicated in FIGS. 1 and 6. These belts 216, move in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of the storage and buffer conveyors (to the right in FIG. 6). Normally, these narrow belts 216 are travelling just below the level of the bottom edge of the double rows of bricks 2116, 210 and 212 (supported by rollers 214) such that the narrow belts 216 do not engage any brick surfacesdlowever, when it is desired to feed bricks from any given level such as 36, 38 or 40, the belt-raising mechanism shown at level 36 in FIG. 6 may be utilized to raise the moving narrow belts 216 into engagement with the lower edges of the brick surfaces and to thereby move the laterally abutting rows of bricks off to the right, as shown in FIG. 6, transverse to the direction of previous brick movements in the storage and buffer storage areas.

For instance, as shown in FIG. 6, each of the narrow belts 216 rides upon a plurality of narrow rollers 2111 which are, in turn, attached to a vertically movable support member 2211. This vertically movable support 220 is in turn supported by bell crank levers 222, 224 pivoted about horizontal axes 226 and 228 respectively, defined, for example, by suitable structure journaled to the machine frame, as will be evident. Movement of levers 222, 224 may be effected by a piston and cylinder device 236 and rod 231. Thus, when piston and cylinder device 2311 pivots levers 222 and 224 in a counterclockwise direction as shown in FIG. 6, roller support 226 is moved upwardly and rollers 2113 move the belt 216 into engagement with the lower surface of rows of laterally abutting bricks such as 208 to move them off to the right as shown in FIG. 6. The bricks 212 at level 411 are shown with belt 216 in raised position at the beginning of a movement towards theright.

To accept the bricks from the blender feeding levels 36, 311 and 40 there is provided a blender elevator 42 shown in FIG. 6. The purpose of elevator 42 is to provide a vertically adjustable conveyor for conveying bricks from any one of the storage areas onto an off-bearing conveyor 44 also shown in FIG. 6. Here, at least two conveyors at different levels are utilized in the blender elevator 42 such that bricks may be simultanc ously transferred both into and out of the elevator section at the same or different elevations thus increasing the handling capacity of the machine without in anyway impairing its blending flexibility. Each conveyor 250, 252 in storage elevator 42 comprises narrow belts, ends of which are interleaved between adjacent ends of narrow belts 216 of the feeding conveyors, as indicated. Tongues 215 are shown bridging the gap between the intermeshed pulleys of the feeding and elevator conveyors.

In addition, in the preferred embodiment, the length of the blending elevator conveyors 250 and 252 is at least equal to the length of 1% rows of laterally abutting bricks. Brick stopping means (to be discussed below) insure that one-half row of bricks always remains at the right-hand side of each of the blender elevator conveyors. Thus, if a complete row of bricks is moved in behind such a remaining half row, one and one-half rows of bricks will be present on the same conveyor. If, subsequently, bricks equal in length to one whole row are sequentially transferred from the end of the conveyor, the newly added complete row of bricks will be effectively split with the last half remaining on the conveyor while the first half travels behind and with the remaining half row previously left on that particular conveyor. Thus, at the output, the last half of one row of bricks from one of the storage levels is effective ly blended with the first half of a row of bricks from the same or any other storage level thereby permitting an extremely flexible blending pattern to be obtained. It should, of course, be understood that modifications in the machine could provide for mixing quantities less than a whole row other than exactly one-half rows if that were desired.

As shown in FIG. 6, one-half row of bricks 254 (the last half of some previously stored row from some one of the feeding levels 36, 313 or 40) is followed by the first half 256 of another row of bricks from the same or a different feeding level. The last half 258 of the same row remains at the right-hand end of conveyor 250 where it is held by a suitable brick stopping device 264 (to be described later) thus preventing its movement therebeyond. At the same time, another row of bricks 266 is shown as being conveyed into the lower level conveyor 252 into position behind a remaining half row 262 from a previous row which is prevented from moving off conveyor 252 by the brick stopping means 264.

The brick-stopping means 264, as shown in FIG. 7, comprises brick-raising bars 265 disposed between the narrow belts on conveyors 250 and 252 and suitably arranged to be vertically adjustable such that, when raised, any bricks resting over bars 265 are raised out of contact with the moving narrow belts comprising conveyors 2511 and 252, thereby prevent ing any further movement of the bricks. In the preferred embodiment, the length of bars 265 is substantially equal to the length of one-half row of bricks. As shown in FIG. 7, the bars 265 are rigidly connected with a lower bar member 266 which is pivotably connected to links 266 and 270 which links are, in turn, pivotably connected with the frame for the conveyor. Thus, when bar 266 is moved to the left by an actuating mechanism (such as a piston and cylinder 272) the links pivot about their fixed pivot axes 274, 276 and raise the bar 266 which in turn raises connected brick raising bars 265 to elevate any bricks (resting on bars 265) away from engagement with the underlying moving belts of conveyors 250 or 252.

It will be appreciated that the structure for conveyor 252 preferably will be the same as that for conveyor 250, including the same brick-stopping means structure 264, etc. In this connection, FIG. 6 shows the upper conveyor 250 partially cut away or in vertical sections, for illustrative purposes, while the bottom conveyor 252 is shown in elevation, not cut away or in sections.

Although only one embodiment of this invention has been specifically described above, it will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that there are many possible modifications of the disclosed method and apparatus which will still substantially produce the described results and are therefore intended to be within the scope of this invention.

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A method for unloading and blending bricks from layered stacks of rows of bricks, said method comprising the steps of:

gripping at least one layer of said rows of bricks,

transferring said gripped bricks to a receiving conveyor table,

storing said rows of bricks in one of a plurality of storage levels,

indexing at least one row of bricks from each of said storage levels into a corresponding level of a multilevel feeding conveyor, and

blending the bricks by mixing bricks from one of said indexed rows in one of said levels with bricks from another one of said indexed rows in the same or another one of said levels in any desired sequence.

2. A method for unloading and blending bricks from layered stacks of spread apart bricks such as those coming from a kiln, said method comprising the steps of:

gripping at least one layer of said spread apart bricks,

transferring said gripped and spread apart bricks to a receiving conveyor table,

closing up said spread apart bricks to form laterally abutting rows of bricks,

storing said abutting rows of bricks in a selected one of a plurality of storage levels,

indexing at least one row of bricks from each of said storage levels into a corresponding level of a feeding conveyor, and

blending said indexed rows by mixing bricks from one of said indexed rows in one of said levels with bricks from another one of said indexed rows in the same or another one of said levels in any desired sequence.

3. A method as in claim 2 wherein:

said gripping step comprises gripping a double layer of spread apart bricks having abutting face surfaces wherein the bottom layer of the do uble layer faces upwardly and the top layer faces downwardly, and wherein after said closing up step there is included another step of" conveying said rows of bricks from said conveyor table onto one of at least two levels of a storage elevator conveyor,

vertically adjusting said one storage elevator level'to coincide with one of said storage levels, and

conveying said rows from said storage elevator conveyor onto said coincident storage level.

5. A method as in claim 4 wherein:

said first mentioned conveying step is performed using bricks from one layer of said layered stack, and

said second mentioned conveying step is simultaneously performed at another one of said levels of said storage elevator using bricks from another layer of said layered stack.

6. A method as in claim 2 wherein said blending by mixing step comprises:

conveying said first mentioned indexed row from said feed ing conveyor onto one of at least two levels of a blending elevator conveyor already containing bricks remaining from said second mentioned indexed row,

vertically adjusting said one blending elevator level to coincide with an off-bearing conveyor,

conveying at least part of said first and sad remaining bricks from said second mentioned indexed row on said one level of said blending elevator onto said off-bearing conveyor.

7. A method as in claim 6 wherein said remaining bricks from said second mentioned indexed row are maintained stationary during said first-mentioned conveying step.

8. A method as in claim 6 wherein said first-mentioned conveying step is performed using bricks from one of said storage levels, and

said second-mentioned conveying step is simultaneously performed at another of said levels of said blending elevator conveyor using bricks from another of said storage levels. 

1. A method for unloading and blending bricks from layered stacks of rows of bricks, said method comprising the steps of: gripping at least one layer of said rows of bricks, transferring said gripped bricks to a receiving conveyor table, storing said rows of bricks in one of a plurality of storage levels, indexing at least one row of bricks from each of said storage levels into a corresponding level of a multilevel feeding conveyor, and blending the bricks by mixing bricks from one of said indexed rows in one of said levels with bricks from another one of said indexed rows in the same or another one of said levels in any desired sequence.
 2. A method for unloading and blending bricks from layered stacks of spread apart bricks such as those coming from a kiln, said method comprising the steps of: gripping at least one layer of said spread apart bricks, transferring said gripped and spread apart bricks to a receiving conveyor table, closing up said spread apart bricks to form laterally abutting rows of bricks, storing said abutting rows of bricks in a selected one of a plurality of storage levels, indexing at least one row of bricks from each of said storage levels into a corresponding level of a feeding conveyor, and blending said indexed rows by mixing bricks from one of said indexed rows in one of said levels with bricks from another one of said indexed rows in the same or another one of said levels in any desired sequence.
 3. A method as in claim 2 wherein: said gripping step comprises gripping a double layer of spread apart bricks having abutting face surfaces wherein the bottom layer of the double layer faces upwardly and the top layer faces downwardly, and wherein after said closing up step there is included another step of unfacing said double layer of bricks by gripping said top layer of bricks and subsequently rotating the entire top layer through substantially 180* thereby orienting the top layer faces upwardly similar to the already upwardly facing bottom layer and thus providing rows of laterally abutting upwardly facing bricks in a single layer for use in subsequent steps.
 4. A method as in claim 1 wherein said storing step comprises: conveying said rows of bricks from said conveyor table onto one of at least two levels of a storage elevator conveyor, vertically adjusting said one storage elevator level to coincide with one of said storage levels, and conveying said rows from said storage elevator conveyor onto said coincident storage level.
 5. A method as in claim 4 wherein: said first mentioned conveying step is performed using bricks from one layer of said layered stack, and said second mentioned conveying step is simultaneously performed at another one of said levels of said storage elevator using bricks from another layer of said layered stack.
 6. A method as in claim 2 wherein said blending by mixing step comprises: conveying said first mentioned indexed row from said feeding conveyor onto one of at least two levels of a blending elevator conveyor already containing bricks remaining from said second mentioned indexed row, vertically adjusting said one blending elevator level to coincide with an off-bearing conveyor, conveying at least part of said first and sad remaining bricks from said second mentioned indexed row on said one level of said blending elevator onto said off-bearing conveyor.
 7. A method as in claim 6 wherein said remaining bricks from said second mentioned indexed row are maintained stationary during said first-mentioned conveying step.
 8. A method as in claim 6 wherein said first-mentioned conveying step is performed using bricks from one of said storage levels, and said second-mentioned conveying step is simultaneously performed at another of said levels of said blending elevator conveyor using bricks from another of said storage levels. 